Most secure way to remote to PC

[korben_dallas]

Hi all,

I need a way to remote to my home PC from work/school. Just curious if anybody out there has some suggestions. I know my home router/firewall will support DynDNS and port forwarding. I was thinking I could setup VNC on an arbitrary port and password protect it.

I need the setup to be very secure. I can't afford to have anything hacked on that particular home PC.

[dbfresh23]

Well the free VNC version itself isn't secure at all. so the 2 options would be either vnc over ssh or buying the personal version of vnc. Either of those methods would be secure, just using Free VNC itself sends data in clear text!

A simple web search will give you some info on using free vnc over ssh...
That would be just as secure as their paid versions.

[GTwannabe]

You can set up dial-in VPN on your computer at home. Connect via VPN and then use either VNC or Remote Desktop to control the PC.

[bebanovich]

I use Logmein (www.logmein.com). It is 128 - 256 bit SSL encrypted. My former student (who was convicted of a couple of hacking crimes when he was in high school and now works for Google) says he uses it without fear. That's good enough for me (because I know and, believe it or not, trust him) but you should check it out yourself. LogMeIn's security info page is here: https://secure.logmein.com/go.asp?page=security.

I know other people who swear by GoToMyPC but it's not free, so I haven't used it.

[dbfresh23]

that logmein system does look pretty neat, but how secure is it really if you are leaving your information on someone elses server?

VNC + SSH is probably a bit more secure since you don't have to give anyone your information and if you have a static ip at work you can filter so that only that ip is allowed through, if your router supports it.

Now if you wanted to use the Windows Remote Desktop instead (which I actually like better then VNC), that can also be tunneled over an ssh connection.

Though if you do want to setup a vpn server on your home pc that would be just as secure. Though with this method you need to make sure that your home router supports vpn passthrough. Dialup is just never a good idea - way too slow and if you have broadband it would seem silly to connect via dialup, plus i'm sure your employer would love the idea of you using one of their phone lines to dial into your computer at home.

[DynamoBen]

I vote for VPN then VNC (personally I use UltraVNC). If you have a linksys router it allows passthru. In addition if you have the WRT54G(s) then you can update your firmware with www.sveasoft.com ($20 per year) and this will allow the router to act as the VPN server instead of a PC on your network. Your call really.

[bebanovich]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

that logmein system does look pretty neat, but how secure is it really if you are leaving your information on someone elses server?

I could be mistaken but I believe that the only info I'm storing on the logmein server is my logmein account login. Once I get into my account, each computer has it's own local logmein client that requires a password that is an addition to the windows security. To login to my server at work I: Login to logmein account on their server > Enter password for server's local logmein client > Enter windows username and password. Also, it doesn't require any open ports on my router or software firewalls.

I do agree, though, that anything using SSH should also be pretty tight.

[korben_dallas]

I can install anything I like on my work laptop, except a modem. Don't have access to an analog line anyways, so that would be pretty dumb and very slow since we have a T3. However, my options are much more limited considering the school PC's are locked down.. no installing programs or changing network/browser settings. I've used the VNC java browser applet in the past with some success. The school PC's do have SSH installed, so I think I can get the forwarding working. Then it would just be getting my home router/firewall and PC configured to accept the connection.

[johns55]

With WinXP, I prefer Remote Desktop. It is RC4 encrypted by default and I find the performace better then vnc.

If you truly can not afford for you pc to be attacked, then do not expose it to the outside world. Put sage on a on a different machine and expose it instead.

[beautye350]

I like Remote Administrator 2.1 It does not have the user auth restrictions that Remote Desktop does and the data is encrypted in transfer. It can be installed as a service. Just for giggles I run on a non-default port as well to try and hide.

Regards,

Beau

[Surtr]

I second the VNC over SSH. I've used it for years, works great. If you have a static IP address, it's real simple, just set up an SSH server on your home network and set up your ssh tunnels on the client. If you have a dynamic IP, you can use a dynamic DNS server like www.homeip.com or something like that.

[seamonkey420]

i'm an win xp remote desktop fan too..

plus, you can setup the good ole remote desktop web connection add-in to be able to do remote access to your machine from any IE browser anywhere!

[Outvit]

I have started to use LogMeIn Pro. It's half the price of GoToMyPC, twice as fast in my personal experience and doesn't require ActiveX. So I'm extremely happy and I use it for personal computers and to administrate my relatives’ computers (they are out of state). The reason for that being that its a simple execute that they install on their computers and its not some ambiguous and confusing interface like NetMeeting and Remote Desktop Connection. Both of which require them to maintain a VPN tunnel to me. So, that’s why I’ve made the investment for LogMeIn over other alternatives that require VNC and SSH tunneling.

[korpse]

I use remote desktop over SSH, but Remote Administrator (as previously mentioned) is also a very nice/secure tool.

[bebanovich]

Originally Posted by Outvit

I have started to use LogMeIn Pro. It's half the price of GoToMyPC . . .

Plus you can just use the free one if you don't need to transfer files directly through it. Don't want to say that I chose it because I'm cheap, but . . .

[mike_15]

I have realVPN and LogMeIn free. I like log me in because I dont need to know the ip address. I do use dnydns and works well. It is unsecure and all I use it for is a backup to the logmein.

I don't know if it is related to it or not. but logmein seems to be giving my sage computer some trouble. since installing it I have had some sage freezes. I haven't been able to say that it is the problem yet, still figuring it out. I have it disabled on that computer for now. and just use it on my other computer.

I do like logmein, It has three different transfer options. java, activex, http. Http is very poor quality but would work in almost any computer. the activex is what I have it default to.
Logmein is my preferred since I don't need any programs to be installed on the viewing computer, so I can use it at work without admin privileges, or needing any ports opened. Work just sees it as a https website.

Mike

[korben_dallas]

Hi all. I just wanted to let everyone know that I tried out OpenSSH Server + VNC Server, and it is working fairly well. My router supports DynDNS, so I set it up and put in a port forwarding rule for SSH (on a non-standard port!) and set OpenSSH Server & VNC Server to run as services on my SageTV server PC.

From work, I connect using SSH Client and then tunnel VNC through it.. the screen update is so-so.. good enough to do what I need to do. And the file transfer rate is about 1MB per minute.. not bad considering all the hops involved.

Best thing of all.. it's all free!

[18Scoobz]

I use ultr@ VNC it is free and can you can use an encryption plugin... Just google it. The plugin uses RC4 stream encryption and works on 95, 98/98SE, ME, NT, 2000, XP, and 2003. It supports 40, 56, and 128bit keys.